Thursday, December 26, 2013

Silicon Valley’s New Obsession With Beauty

DECEMBER 23, 2013, 7:30 AM

Silicon Valley has always been obsessed with efficiency. But lately, it is also obsessed with beauty.
In a place where engineers have reigned supreme, the new tech talent war is for designers. Tech companies are focusing not just on the behind-the-scenes technology that makes a site or app run, but also how it looks to users and how attractive and intuitive it is — analyzing things like shadow, color and font.
“If you look at these apps, they’re pretty darn beautiful, usable apps, so now everyone’s game has got to rise to that standard,” said Rick Devine, chief executive of TalentSky, a Silicon Valley recruiting firm. “You can’t put out something that’s ugly or clunky but functional. So user interface engineers are in high demand.”
Newer companies like Pinterest and Instagram, for instance, are more focused on appearance and ease of use than older Web companies including Amazon, eBay and even Facebook and Twitter.
Design has become more important in software, people in tech say, because software has become more intimate. People use it all day in every facet of their lives and on mobile devices, which require more thoughtful design because of the small screen. The new emphasis on design also extends to hardware, like the Nest thermostat and smoke alarm.
When Peek, a start-up for booking travel activities, designed its first iPhone app, its co-founder and chief executive, Ruzwana Bashir, said she prioritized design over other factors. The app shows large photos instead of a list of activities, for instance, even though it meant Peek could not fit as many activities on each screen.
“Great design has gone from being a nice-to-have to an absolute must-have,” Ms. Bashir said.
Google, not always known for its sense of style, overhauled its design over the last few years after its co-founder, Larry Page, took over as chief executive and said he wanted the company to shift its focus to making its products cohesive and “beautifully simple.”
“One pillar of great design is beauty – having an emotional quality to our design and an emotional resonance — and that wasn’t really baked into the original Google products so much,” said Jon Wiley, who leads design for Google search.
Google has been increasing its hiring of designers, including from new disciplines like visual, industrial and animation design. (Mr. Wiley has a degree in theater.)
One of its most recent design recruits, AJ Maiorano, came from Square and Apple, which he joined a decade ago. “It was not like it is today,” Mr. Maiorano said. “It’s absolutely astonishing to me just how these companies all over Silicon Valley are looking for designers.”
Venture capital firms including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and NEA have started programs to recruit and coach designers.
“Designers as founders are very interesting and make up critical DNA of new companies,” said Dayna Grayson, a partner at NEA, which started what it calls NEA Studio, a workshop for designers who want to start companies.
Designers need technical understanding, but not always engineering skills. They need art skills and an understanding of how people behave online. And, Mr. Wiley said, “first and foremost I look for empathy, because design is not art, it’s actually solving real problems for people.”

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